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After using his main, final and strongest trump card, Dracula became even weaker than before. It was paradoxical, but it was true.

Vlad's last trump card was that if he had accepted himself as Dracula, he would have gained all his mythical abilities as a vampire: tremendous strength, speed, vitality, and, most importantly, tremendous regeneration, but the problem was somewhere else.

According to the rules of Yggdrasil, most types of the regeneration did not extend to the damage caused by negative energy, acid and fire. Having taken the form of an undead, Dracula finally rejected all protection against fire, which was bestowed on him by his human body.

If Dracula collided in this new, liberated state with any other Servant, like Arthuria, Lancelot, or Cu Chulainn, he could easily destroy them. Even in a battle with the greatest among all Servants such as Karna, Gilgamesh, Scatach, he might stand a chance.

But for Ainz, he became only an even easier and more vulnerable target than before. Having lost the ability to create stakes, he lost the opportunity to attack Ainz, who was hovering in the sky, and even if he could reach him, Ainz with his teleportation would simply leave him at that moment. However, this was not the worst part, because, having lost his mind, Dracula turned into a crazy, bloodthirsty beast, that even forgot about the very minimum of military tactics. In other words, when a column of fire engulfed his body, instead of planning for different options for his battle with the mage, the vampire only rushed at him in a head-on attack. It was in vain.

By the time the Servants, exhausted after their battles, reached the place where the battle between Ainz and Dracula took place, Ainz had long since gotten down to the ground, and was now only continuing to examine the ashes and black coals left by what was once the most powerful vampire.

"Hmmm" the mage's slightly interested voice caught the attention of the Servants before the necromancer's hand grabbed something from the very depths of the black ash, which immediately fell apart "Data Crystal. Good."

After these words, the mage's hand disappeared into the black portal that appeared next to him, after which, the crystal, shimmering with soft light, disappeared, and when the mage's palm appeared again from the hole, there was nothing in it.

Only after this did Ainz reacted to the approaching Servants and turn to them.

It was impossible to say for sure what attracted his attention, the two new Servants who appeared next to him, the blood that continued to drip from under the blindfold covering Medusa's eyes, or the looks that Arthuria still continued to award him. Ainz hesitated for a few seconds before choosing to prioritize matter of the new faces that appeared at the last moment of the battle.

The first them catch Ainz's attention was a young girl. She looked hardly over sixteen years old, her ash-blond hair was braided into two tight curls hanging from the sides of her head, while the remaining hair framed a neat, sweet, childishly naive little snub-nosed face with blue eyes looking at a world with a kid-like admiration and curiosity. Her almost childish body was dressed in a tight-fitting red dress, turning below the waist into a short miniskirt, barely hiding her legs, covered a little lower with high white stiletto boots, while on her hands were short gloves that covered her palms.

In contrast to her looks, the man next to her appeared tall and thin, his long arms had long thin fingers reminiscent of the claws of some carnivorous bird, and were dressed in high white gloves, going deep into the hollow spacious sleeves of his outfit, which seemed to be a solemn uniform embroidered with gold embossing, on his shoulders was a grandiose black cloak with a gold lining. However, while the girl was beautiful, there was nothing special about the man's face, his long sun-blond tangled hair and gray eyes, together with sharp thin features, a narrow long nose and thin lips made him look rather groomed, than charming, because of which, his figure served rather as a shade of beauty for the young girl, lost on her background.

Ainz carefully looked at the two arrivals, after which, after a little thought, he looked at the man behind the young girl. However, instead of him, the young girl was the first to speak:

"Since you have already seen my Noble Phantasm," the girl smiled, "I think it makes no sense to hide further. Servant Rider, Marie-Antoinette, nice to meet you!"

The girl curtsied at this, and although Ainz, for obvious reasons, had never such things and could not confidently judge her performance of such an aristocratic action, in his opinion, the performed curtsy looked flawless.

"And this, is my friend and colleague." after the perfect action, the girl pointed her elbow at the man, who, having ceased to glance at Arthuria, finally reacted:

"Servant Caster, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart," the man bowed after these words.

Ainz was not completely sure what he was supposed to do at that moment. Courtesy demanded reciprocal courtesy, however, such a disclosure of all cards from the very beginning of communication seemed unusual to him. On the other hand, finding Jeanne with a glance, while she was not far from him, still supporting her wounded body with a banner stuck in the ground, Ainz recalled their first meeting and doubted it. Perhaps he really should have disclosed at least minimal information about himself in return ...

"Ainz" the mage finally decided, "If you want to talk to the rest of the Servants, then I have no right to disturb you."

"Oh, of course," Marie blurted out a smile at this and instantly flew out of the conversation with Ainz, before he could continue it, "Oh, please forgive me, will you tell me your name?"

"Jeanne," the Saint only smiled at this question, "Jeanne d'Arc."

"Wow!" Ainz could almost see how Marie Antoinette's eyes lit up, "Jeanne d'Arc itself! Incredibly, I never even dreamed that I could meet you alive!"

At this Ainz just looked at the two girls talking to each other, after which he looked at the man who remained in front of him. He, as if catching the mood of the mage, only sighed and shrugged, as if saying "it always happens", and then turned to Ainz, "Please forgive me, Her Majesty did not want to offend you with her neglect, she's just one of those so-called "airheads"."

"Nothing of the kind, old pervert!" as if reacting to this, Marie interrupted her conversation with Jeanne, after, which she cast an angry look at Mozart, "I'm just familiar with the aristocratic life and understand that sometimes competent people should do the real work, so Amadeus, I entrust you with this important mission while I make contacts!"

And satisfied with the answer, the girl turned to Jeanne and continued the conversation, making Mozart once again sadly and heavily breathe, as if he were doing some incredibly hard, but necessary work.

Ainz did not know how he should react to this small exchange, so he chose the safest way "Thank you for interfering in the battle a little earlier. If not for you, the battle would not have ended without loss"

"I doubt it" Caster said simply, after which, he looked at the ashes left by the great vampire, already thoroughly blown by the wind around the field, after which, he looked at Ainz, "In any case, we are always happy to help."

"Thank you," Ainz bowed briefly to this, after which, he looked at Marie Antoinette, who had already thrown a conversation with Jeanne and was trying to hug Serenity. To her credit, Serenity, who could have rid herself of yet another potential rival in such a simple way, was not giving in to the girl's embrace.

Having come to the conclusion that the new Servants were still more likely allies, Ainz went on to the following matters.

'And yet…' the thought slipped through his head, 'Marie Antoinette and Mozart ... This is someone famous, right?..'

Medusa slowly pulled off her mask, exposing the face disfigured by the blow, devoid its eyes. She expected Ainz to be taken aback, or maybe make a wry face, but instead the mage only raised a hand to her face calmly, "Does it hurt?"

Medusa wanted to object to this, but as soon as he touched the cut, she involuntarily hissed, as the necromancer tore off a thin crust of clotted blood from her eyes with an inaccurate movement, causing them to bleed again, to which the mage just nodded "so it hurts."

Ainz did not quite understand why he was doing this, he was not a doctor, and knowing whether Medusa's wound was painful or not would not have brought him anything, rather, he simply acted as dictated to him by the knowledge of films and programs he watched.

"It's okay, Master" Medusa instantly tried to make up for her involuntary reaction "The wound will be closed in the next few days."

It was a logical phrase, it meant that if the girl's wound would be healed in a few days, then she was not a liability, and the reduction in combat capabilities in this case was temporary and insignificant, which means his intervention was not needed. But still…

"Hmm, maybe," Ainz indefinitely held out, looking at the red strip stretching horizontally across the girl's face through her eyes and nose. Even if Medusa was just slightly injured, she was still injured. And what was much worse, she was injured due his decisions.

"Something wrong, Master?" noticing his silence as he continued to look at her face, Medusa asked him again, but the mage said nothing, continuing to think.

From an objective point of view, Ainz did not have to spend even the smallest crumbs of his resources on Medusa. Especially if Ainz had limited quantities of these resources at his disposal, but at the same time...

Ainz was a collector by nature, this was one of the defining features of his personality and a motivation for his behavior, not only things that were almost impossible to get were stored in his inventory, but also, those things that should have been spent a long time ago. Potions, wands, tonics, amplifiers, poultices, staves, scrolls, crystals... all that Ainz did not use because he considered it "too valuable" or prepared it for when he "truly needed it", and after that, the need for these items finally disappeared as they became obsolete. In other words, even things absolutely useless for him, such as dresses, were stored in his inventory, simply because he once put them there.

Healing potions were useless for Ainz, no, in fact, they were even dangerous for him. Healing potions were a concentration of positive energy, while Ainz, who was undead, was a concentration of negative energy. In other words, the healing potion was supposed to hurt him as much as it was supposed to heal sentient beings. It was useless to him.

However, Ainz, being a miser by nature, still continued to accumulate such potions when they came to him, which lead to countless vials of the weakest healing potions piling up in his inventory, enough to fill a small sea, not to mention the more powerful healing potions, or potions with other effects that mimic healing, or other things with similar effects. Ainz possessed almost endless supplies of any consumable in the game. However...he was a miser.

If he saw a simple person dying from the plague, then even with thousands of bottles of "Healing from the disease" potions, Ainz would pass by.

However, Medusa was not an ordinary person. She was Ainz's Servant, and therefore, a subordinate of the negligent boss Ainz, who took the name of all his friends as his own. So he could not afford to dishonor the name of their glorious guild by cowardice and treason.

So with a sigh, Ainz reached out into the black hole of his inventory and pulled out a small red phial. The liquid splashing inside was like blood, but only partially. It was a dense red liquid that did not leave a residue on the walls of the bottle, scattering the rays of the sun breaking through the tent, where Ainz and the wounded Medusa were now. "Potion of minor healing."

"Well," in the end, the guy handed the potion to the girl after a second of doubt, "Drink it."

"Thank you, Master," but instead of obeying his orders, Medusa only shook her head, "But I assure you that this wound will close on its own after a few days. You don't have to spend any of your stock on me."

"I know," Ainz agreed to this, and insistently handed the girl the phial, "Drink it."

"Master, I really don't need this," Medusa stubbornly refused again, "I can regenerate it on my own."

Of course, from the outside it might seem that Medusa was stubborn because of her warring character, because she did not like her Master or because she did not trust the potion, but in reality, the reason was nothing like this. The problem was that Medusa did not think that she was worth the cost of a healing potion.

Of course, she still felt the pain from the wound, and it was unpleasant to feel a void in place of her eyes, and she felt uncomfortable because she could not feel her usual blindfold. However, Medusa did not consider this to be sufficient reason for her Master to spend his resources on her.

Medusa saw herself as a Servant, a tool, a weapon, a doll, a monster, anything, but not a living person. And therefore, she sincerely did not understand Ainz's attempt to heal her wounds. For her, it seemed as strange and redundant as trying to console a scratched table with kind words. An unnecessary action that did not fit the situation because of its banal absurdity.

However, Medusa's Master still continued to insist that she drink the potion, so the girl was still forced to give in.

"Good," she took the phial from the hands of the mage, after that, she poured the red liquid inside herself. The potion did not have any specific taste, rather, it simply resembled fresh spring water. However, instantly, the girl felt a pleasant coolness spreading across her body, and felt her flesh grow together with a not unpleasant, but strange sensation and slowly take on the same shape of her eyes.

After a couple of seconds, the girl felt how the cut on her face disappeared, after which, she blinked several times.

However, despite the fact that the wound was physically repaired, the girl was still blind. Her vision did not return to her.

Slowly, the girl raised her hand in front of her to make sure what happened, and then ran it across her face, feeling only perfectly restored skin and eyes under her fingers.

"Something is wrong?" To this Ainz turned to the girl, forcing her to startle.

Of course, something was wrong, because the girl's vision did not return. However, Medusa felt somewhat guilty that Ainz's potion did not cure her blindness, so she only shook her head.

However, Ainz, sensing something in her actions, thought for a bit, and with a sigh, looked at the girl carefully, "Your vision has not been restored?"

Medusa could continue to deny the obvious, but instead, the girl only nodded slowly, feeling guilty about what had happened.

"Of course, I could have guessed," Ainz sighed. Simple healing spells could heal any wounds, however, if the wound was accompanied by a status effect such as "trauma" or "crippled" for example, or when an eye was injured or a hand was lost, then a simple healing spell might not be enough. Thus, the potion was able to heal a simple wound, restoring Medusa's health, but not her vision.

To this, Ainz just moved his hand to the side, allowing it to hide in the void of his inventory.

"It's not worth it, Master," realizing what will happen next, Medusa tried once again to force Ainz to give up, but it was useless. Although Ainz did not want to spend his consumables just like that, he was also not used to being limited to half measures.

"Good," stretching out a new phial, this time with a slightly unclear purple liquid, he handed it to Medusa and, not listening to her timid objections, made her drink the liquid.

Instantly, as a sensation of pleasant lightness spilled over the girl's body, an image appeared in front of her eyes. She was able to see the awning in front of her, its walls swaying in the wind, and the man sitting opposite her, and looked into his eyes.

A moment later, Medusa closed her eyes and looked away, "I'm sorry!"

"Hmm?" Ainz just tilted his head slightly, after which, realizing, he nodded, "Don't be. I have strong protection against magic, and additional protection against petrification and paralysis, so you do not have to worry about looking at me."

Medusa only paused for a few seconds.

She wanted to look at her Master, she really wanted to, but she realized that any person she looked at would instantly die, petrified. Of course, her Master was not weak, it was unequivocal, but even the Servants could not defend themselves completely from her strength. Perhaps he simply could not recognize the powers of the damned eyes of Medusa...

The girl thought for a second, after which, nevertheless, she trusted her Master and slowly opened her eyes.

Ainz turned out to be... ordinary?

Medium height, with black short-cut hair, carelessly combed with a parting in the middle, with a completely ordinary face and black eyes, medium build, a little older than twenty-five, the most ordinary man. Although…

It would seem that every trait in Ainz was ordinary, but at the same time... Something was particularly prominent. The usual physique seemed ideally suited to his face, the color of his eyes perfectly combined softness and depth, his eyes balanced on the fine line between severity and softness. As if even looking normally, he still managed to look especially significant, as if even the most ordinary body could not hide the greatness lurking behind.

In fact, the reason for such a strange appearance lied in more prosaic things. In Da Vinci, who created Ainz's perfect body.

However, the fact that this body was created by Da Vinci did not mean that Medusa's thoughts were completely wrong.

The girl continued to look at Ainz, and he, in response, looked into her eyes. For a second, she became scared of this, not only because of the fact that directly looking into her eyes should have been many times stronger than a look from her, but also because Ainz could see the damned eyes of Medusa.

The girl's pupils were forever twisted and the very structure of her eyes took a different look. Her gaze was unblinking, as if serpentine, and the black pupil, resting in the center of the yellow eye, looked like a wide black quadrangle, frozen in the very center of her eyes.

Any person looking at her eyes would shudder at the unnaturalness of the picture that appeared before him.

However, Ainz, looking into these eyes, did not pay any attention to this.

Was this due to his memories of the Yggdrasil monsters? Yes, but only in part. More importantly, Ainz came from the twenty-second century.

Genetic and cybernetic changes were the norm of his time, and therefore Medusa's pupils were not the strangest thing that Ainz had seen in his life. Moreover, his previous boss also wore eye implants, due to which his pupils could freely change shape in the most suitable way for the environment, and in his spare time, the boss preferred to make his pupils look like an hourglass, which is why Medusa's eyes were not even on the list of the top thousand strangest things that happened to the human body that he saw.

Therefore, observing the girl, Ainz just nodded to himself, "Do you feel okay?"

"Ha?" on this Medusa blinked once. Although she did not need this normally, she still did so sometimes, in moments of emotional significance.

"Has your vision completely recovered?" the girl only stopped for a second, then slowly nodded.

"Good," Ainz nodded to himself. "In that case, if you need anything, any help, please contact me. I understand that you may not consider me suitable for help. However, I will try to do everything in my power."

For a second, Medusa thought about what was said, after which, only realizing how her attempt to refuse help looked for Ainz, she tried to turn to the mage, but he already went out into the street.

Medusa, staying inside, sighed several times and closed her eyes.

And again, she does everything wrong and causes someone inconvenience because of her stupidity...

The girl sighed at this and pulled the blindfold over her eyes.

After Medusa, Ainz tended to his other subordinates who got injured in the battle, who were almost all of his Servants: Serenity, Cu Chulainn, Archer, Hassan. After some thought, Ainz also decided to deal with Jeanne's injuries. In other words, the last who remained on the list of the wounded and still was not cured was Arthuria. And meeting with her was the thing Ainz was most afraid of.

Arthuria frightened him a little, her cold condemning gaze and eternal detachment seemed to press on Ainz, reminding him that he was an insignificant insect that accidentally ran into the greatest heroes of humanity. At least, they all claimed to be such, and Ainz was inclined to agree with them. At least he had to fight with Cu Chulainn and King Arthur in the past, but back then they looked different and King Arthur was a man. However, as his knowledge prompted to him that ordinary people could not become Servants, Ainz was forced to accept their words without questions.

And so, after healing all the Servants, Ainz stopped in front of the last target, Arthuria, but he hesitated. He did not want to meet this gloomy woman with an aura of power around her, but if he fled now, would that not show him as a weak boss? What kind of boss in the world would run away simply because he did not like his subordinate?

No, if you think about it, Ainz could recall how his colleagues once talked about the fact that someone from a street gang decided to get a job in an office nearby and the boss sent his deputies exclusively to talk with him...

Subsequently, when one of the deputies reprimanded the newcomer, he was shot dead on the threshold of his house few days after...

Ainz flinched, because such a line of thought did not help him to concentrate on his actions nor gather his strength, after that, he shook his head and resolutely took a step forward, finding himself in a dark place one on one with the girl.

No, in fact, the shelter created by Ainz was the same in all cases, the eighth-rank spell "Create Base" created a minimally liveable camp of arbitrary size with the minimum necessary supplies for almost any number of people, so Arthuria's shelter should not look different than the shelter of any other Servant. The girl's temporary base was darkened solely by the fact that she was here, with her black armor, which at the moment was perched aside, leaning on a small armor rack.

Ainz was distracted for a second at observing the standing armor, trying to figure out what exactly in the sight in front of him did not give him peace before the voice distracted him, "Master?"

Arthuria turned to Ainz, and guided by the cold tone, the mage turned to the girl, sitting on the bed and, realizing by her appearance what was haunting him, nodded a little.

Until that moment, Ainz had never seen Arthuria without her armor.

Without the black armor that gave her volume and gloom, the girl herself looked... Fragile?

Perhaps not as fragile as a precious vase or crystal decanter, but as fragile as a piece of art, cold and majestic.

The girl in front of him was pale and not as impressive as Ainz remembered her in his memoirs just a second ago. There was clotted blood on her pale skin, and Ainz could see a couple still open wounds, in many places, her luxurious evening dress was torn.

'I didn't know that she wears a dress under the armor…' Ainz thought for a second, looking at the girl before her voice led the guy out of thought.

"Master, did you want something?" the girl looked at the guy who had just noticed her sheathed blade lying next to her.

"Yes," finally gathering strength, Ainz took a step toward the girl, "Here, a healing potion."

Ainz handed the girl a phial, who, carefully looking at the bottle, accepted it without a word and drank it instantly.

A soft radiance spread across her body, after which, she calmly gave the bottle to the magician, "Is that all?"

To this, Ainz hesitated for a second, "If you have any other wounds or problems..."

"No," the girl answered shortly, after which, she asked again, "Is that all?"

"Yes, perhaps," having failed to say something else, Ainz was forced to agree with Arthuria.

"Good," the girl answered once again and returned to her sword.

Ainz should go out and get further away, but the feeling that something was wrong did not let him go. Despite the fact that Arthuria looked and even behaved the same as before, some feeling did not allow him to simply leave the tent and go about his business. Memories of strange looks that the girl threw at him not so long ago forced Ainz to open his mouth again, "Are you all right?"

"Yes, Master," Arthuria answered as coldly and clearly as always, after which she turned her gaze to the mage, "I'm fine."

Ainz frowned at the words. Of course, he was poorly versed in Servant lore, but still, there was a reason why he could become a compromise figure for forty renegades of society, ready to lead them all, "I may not be the best bo... Master, but still I am ready to do everything in my power to help my subor... Servants."

At this Arthuria just looked at the necromancer unimpressed, and then sighed, "Such perseverance should be punished."

After these words, Arthuria nevertheless set aside her blade and looked into the eyes of the Master, "Why did you do it?"

"It?" Ainz blinked for a second, after which, as if a light bulb popped up above his head, - "Ah, so you say... It's About "that"…"

Ainz had no idea what "It" she was talking about, he could not even imagine what the girl was thinking right now, but he understood that a boss who could not even see his mistake was the worst of all possible bosses, so leaving himself an internal note about the need to find out what "It" girl had in mind later, Ainz nodded in understanding.

"Yes," Arthuria also nodded slowly, realizing that her Master was still able to understand what the girl meant, "Why did you do it?"

'What are you talking about!?' Ainz wanted to scream at the girl, but instead Ainz's brain was busy with other work, he tried to come up with the most convincing lie that he could "Ahem, this... Sometimes such actions are necessary."

"I understand that," the girl only nodded. "However, it was my duty. I had to do it myself."

"Oh, ahem!" Ainz suddenly realized that after this remark he finally lost the thread of reasoning he thought he shared with the girl and was forced to trust blind intuition, "Ahem... Sometimes the Master's duty is to do such things on his own..."

"Is it?" Arthuria looked at Ainz calmly, "It is my duty as a knight... No, as a king."

'Oh, at what moment did we start talking about kings?!' Ainz mentally shuddered at the moment when the conversation turned in this direction, but his face did not even raise an eyebrow at these words, "I have no doubt in your ability to fulfill your duty. However, my duty as a Master is to help you."

To this, Arthuria only looked at the mage with a curious look, and although his appearance did not suggest any possibility to support such loud words with actions, remembering his terrifying power, the girl was forced to agree that he could fulfill what was said, "My decisions are my responsibility and I do not I need someone's help to take care of them."

"I understand this," feeling that he talked away from the dangerous "It," about which he had no idea, Ainz wisely nodded. "And I'm not saying that you need help. However, just as you have your duty, so do I as a Master. My duty is to help those Servants that I have called. If I can't even help you, then what worth am I as a real guil... Master."

For a second, Arturia's gaze, which Ainz could swear touched him, burned him, as if evaluating and weighing all the arguments, but the girl nevertheless gave up and looked away, "I do not need your help."

"But you can always count on it," Ainz nodded. If he still had to become the boss in the end, he planned to become the best boss he had never had!

Arthuria only rolled her eyes at these words, hardly noticeable, but Ainz could still see this, and then turned around from the mage, letting him know that their conversation was over, to which, the necromancer just nodded and walked away.

Arthuria, left alone, reached for her sword again and was easily able to get it out of its sheath and look at the blade.

The blade of her sword was anthracite-black, however, unlike the black blade of the Dragon Witch, it still reflected the light in his calm state, so Arthuria was able to see herself in the reflection.

For a few seconds, the girl continued to look at her face, after which, having sighed completely humanly, she returned the blade back to the scabbard and put it away from her.

Ainz though, as soon as he took a step out, came face to face with Mashu, hurrying somewhere. The girl, as soon as she saw the Master, brightened, and then hastened to tell him the important news, the person they saved woke up.

Mashu hurried to meet Ainz, so only half of the Servants gathered at the man's door.

In addition to Mashu and Ainz, Jeanne, Mozart and Marie were at the door of the tent, so, when the mage approached them, the last one of those waved friendly to him, and before the magi could react in any way to her actions, she disappeared inside the tent, only having time to wave back to the door flaps. Mozart, observing her actions, only sighed and followed. Jeanne, having seen the actions of two and not finding any reaction from Ainz to this, also hesitantly pulled away the tent flaps and entered after the two.

Ainz, though he was the Master, was actually the last to enter, so the scene he found was somewhat different than could be expected.

The rescued man was very young, literally twenty years old, and, as any victim of torture should be, he was naked. Trying to fix this, the man tried to cover his lower body with a sheet pulled from the bed, but at the same time, for lack of other weapons, the man tried to shake menacingly his fists in the air, brushing off the onset of two girls and one unfortunate man who was forced to babysit with them. No, to be more precise, he tried to isolate himself from only one girl.

"Back away, Witch!" the man literally burned with anger, splashing his fist in a formidable shock in the air directed at Jeanne, "I did not give up the last time, and my opinion will not change! Kill me! I won't join you, Witch!"

"I apologize, I do not want to harm you!" Jeanne tried to take a step forward, but being afraid of hurting the man in front of her, she was forced to immediately retreat when he waved his fist at her, "Excuse me, I'm not an enemy!"

Marie also participated in this skirmish, however, instead of helping Jeanne, or even the beating man, it seemed that she simply enjoyed the situation itself, interfering with the process more than helping.

Mozart tried to make the biggest contribution to solving the problem by trying to get Marie out of the mess, but she, bursting out with a childish laugh, only continued to leave his tenacious hands and walk around other people, bringing additional chaos to the already complicated situation.

Ainz watched the scene for several seconds, trying to determine which of the two things required more of his attention, after which, with a sigh, he extended his hand forward.

"Mass Hold Species" the spell in his hands instantly took shape, and then bursted into reality, fettering people. All targets of the spell instantly lost all power and ability to resist, freezing like silent dolls. The bodies of the frozen could not make a single movement, even talking and moving their eyes was impossible in their case. If Ainz wished, this spell would instantly become a death trap, because by controlling all the muscles and the smallest movements in the body, the mage could force the captured to stop breathing. However, the necromancer naturally did not want this.

Calmly, Ainz took a few steps across the tent, after which, making sure that all those who had frozen understood the situation they were in, lifted the spell.

Mozart took advantage of this first, seizing one of Marie Antoinette's arms, who, despite the fact that she had her fun a little bit halted, could easily turn the situation into even more chaos than it was at any time.

Next, the unknown man reacted, picking up the sheet that had slipped off during the paralysis, the man took a step back, but now, knowing that his opponent was able to paralyze him, the man seemed to have reconciled with his fate and now only looked at Ainz with malicious anger.

With a sigh, Ainz took a step forward, putting himself a little behind Jeanne, and looked into the eyes of the man standing in front of him.

Recalling all his experience as a seller and clerk, Ainz tried to convincingly smile at his new acquaintance, "Good afternoon. My name is Ainz, and it so happened that at the moment you are in the camp run by me and my subordinates…"

"Witch's servant!" interrupting the mage, the man glanced at Jeanne, standing next to Ainz, "Do you think that I will forget the one who betrayed me, and the entirety of France?!"

"No," Ainz nodded, and then shook his head. Even Ainz himself was suspicious at the first meeting with Jeanne, so it would be naive to assume that he would be able to convince a person who personally met with the Witch so easily "But I think that you understand that if we were working with Witch, then we would not need to take you out of the cage in the square, or even more, to heal you."

The man frowned at this, unconsciously acknowledging the veracity of the words of the mage, "The Witch has repeatedly tried to trick me. She didn't succeed earlier, she won't succeed now!"

After these words, the man glanced at Jeanne, who, as if being burned by him with a glance, took a step back, now standing behind Ainz.

"Ahem," Ainz paused. It would be foolish to deny that this is all a trick of the Witch because any of the minions sent by the Witch would do so. However, Ainz had another argument, "In this case, this attempt to gain your trust is extremely ineffective."

"Hmm?!" the man only looked at the mage angry and a little concerned.

"To begin with, we initially brought the Witch to you," after glancing at Jeanne Ainz noticed, how she flinched a little at the moment her opponent was mentioned, "Then we healed you completely without your awakening and did not even leave supervision from us. In this case, the best way would be to provide you with a minimum restoration of strength so as not to let you die, and then awaken you. Then, while you were already conscious, we would leave you a "caregiver", who would be both a supervisor and a jailer, at the same time, he would do minor medical work and maintain contact with you, because of which, you would be forced to become more emotionally close to this person. Then it would be necessary to imitate the lack of supplies, one of our group should advocate to abandon you, after which, the nurse assigned to you would give you his supplies, forcing you to react to him or her with even greater emotions. Then, after some time, it would be possible to conduct a false attack of the Dragon Witch forces on the camp, where the nurse would protect you during your helplessness, having received a wound in the process. After that, we could finish the treatment as soon as possible and the person appointed as your nurse would enjoy your full trust, which would allow us to find out any of your secrets after about a week or, in the worst case, two."

After these words, echoed in an empty tent, all those present stared at Ainz, as if they had just first seen him for all the time. Even the man who was so prepared to attack, relaxed a little, albeit for a different reason than it might seem.

"You have the magnificent and perverted mind of the Devil himself," Ainz only suddenly felt a rush of embarrassment at these words. Frankly, he simply remembered what Punitto Moe once told him and applied it to the current situation, so he had absolutely nothing to be proud of, "And therefore I believe that you are not a minion of the Witch."

"Huh?" Jeanne, looking at the mage, was more shocked not by the ruthlessness of the plan, but by the man's thoughts, "How does it even work?!"

"Dragon Witch is a dull and impulsive hysterical bitch, she does not have enough patience or brains to think up such a devilish plan. All that was enough for her was to call one of her minions to convince me of how magnificent she is," the man sighed at this, after which, he looked at Jeanne, "I sent her to the Devil and she broke my arm."

"It's sad," Ainz nodded without thinking of any better answer. "Nevertheless, we hoped that we would be able to get some answers from you."

To this, the man only measured the mage with a glance, after which he nodded, "Good. At least we can try to talk."

"Good," Ainz nodded, and then introduced himself. "As I said, my name is Ainz."

After that, the man pointed to a girl standing nearby, "Her name is known to you…"

"Jeanne d'Arc," the man nodded, then grimaced, "She is known to me much more than to many, but the fact that she still has not recognized me only supports me in the thought that she is still not the Dragon Witch."

To these words, Jeanne turned to the man, who, trying to maintain the falling sheet, nevertheless did something like a bow "John II of Alenсon".

Emotional Suppression: EX (A +++)

At this level, we can say that at the moment when this skill activates, all emotions, positive and negative, not only cease to exist, but are also fundamentally impossible, and the mind of the user is fundamentally rewritten with this skill in order to not contain even a hint of emotional judgment.

Any methods of emotional or mental influence on the magician are impossible at the conceptual level, be it passion, fear, love, or even an attempt to turn emotions into tangible values, it it all meaningless.

All attacks that use the emotional sphere as a measure of their strength are impossible; not so much because they may lack potency, but because of the lack of a target.

Unique is the fact that, due to the lack of an emotional side, this skill not only defends the mind of the user from emotions, but also from their absence. For example, since the concept of "fear" is alien to Ainz, he cannot be afraid, but he cannot NOT be afraid. In other words, emotions are fundamentally not compatable with an overlord's body, which means that without the ability to experience emotions, and with the inability to not experience them, Ainz is not only invulnerable to mental manipulation, but also unable to achieve nirvana or enlightenment.

The only reason why this skill has had its rank lowered is the fact that this skill appears only sporadically, in cases when emotions can cloud the judgement of the user. If Ainz uses the full power of this skill and its full rank, he will completely and absolutely lose all semblance of emotions or empathy. Further suppression of this skill by gaining emotions is theoretically possible, but at the same time, it is extremely unlikely, because having lost all kinds of emotional attachment, it is unlikely that Ainz's mind will find a reason to return the emotions to their place again.